Science and technology publishers have agreed to offer academics in the world's poorest countries free access to their journals, says a United Nations agency.

But an Australian expert says this may not improve access of developing countries to scientific information unless internet infrastructure is improved.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced this week that 12 publishers have agreed to grant free access to about 64 journals to research and academic institutions and intellectual property offices in almost 50 countries.

"Access to the knowledge contained in scientific and technical literature is critical to the innovation process," says WIPO chief Francis Gurry.

Another 58 developing countries would also get access by paying an annual subscription of US$1,000 a year, against the regular annual subscription fee of over $400,000.

Bangladesh Minister for Industries Dilip Barua, whose country would be among those to benefit, highlights the importance of gaining access to technology information.

"Least Developed Countries need to have access to technological know-how that can help them build a knowledge base to address the challenges in public health and education, enterprise development, poverty alleviation and sustainability of economic development, climate change and other areas," he says.

"In principle it's a good thing because developing countries aren't going to develop nearly as quickly unless they have access to this kind of information," says Clarke.

But, he says, developing countries often don't have access to the right technology and infrastructure to access online journal databases.

"They need to have access to the right kind of kit - sufficiently up-to-date computers, they need to have network connections, they need to have reasonable response times and then they need to get into these databases," he says.

"That's obviously not something that WIPO or individual commercial publishers or individual professional disciplines can solve. But the whole problem does need to be solved."

WIPO's Access to Research for Development and Innovation (aRDi) program is a public-private partnership, which includes the Oxford University Press, Elsevier and the National Academy of Sciences.